Always a Jedi
by My Lady Vader
Summary: After encountering Obi-Wan and Luke fleeing from Tatooine, Ahsoka finds herself swept up in an attempt to rid the galaxy of the Empire, and subsequently discovers that her fate is irreversibly sealed.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone! Welcome to the final instalment of my Ahsoka series. I've been working on this for about a year (well, it's been a year since I started working on this) and I know that I'm not going to be able to finish it unless I have something to keep me going, so I'm hoping that posting it now will help me to finish! I already have more than 10,000 words written out, which is a third of 'Rebellion's Own', which means this story will probably end up being much longer than that one. Yay!**

 **Updates will be every Saturday evening until I'm finished. Exciting!**

 **(Also, this takes place a few days after the final chapter in 'Rebellion's Own', so if you're lost, read that one real quick)**

* * *

She was backed into a corner, and no escape route seemed plausible. Her hand rested just above her blaster, just subtle enough so that it wasn't obvious to the buffoon what she was doing, but it was close enough for her to grab it should things turn sour. Perhaps she'd be able to talk her way out of this one. Her companion didn't look too concerned, though. His shoulders were relaxed, and his hands rested lazily on his hips. Ahsoka took in her surroundings again: they were currently in a dive cantina in the under city of coruscant. When she found herself in these places she would long for the open spaces that her ship could bring her to.

"Calm down," her companion whispered. "For this to work, you can't be agitated."

"You'll have to forgive me: I'm not used to not knowing who I am meeting with," Ahsoka snapped back. It had been only a few short days since she was nearly arrested and joined forces with former Imperial officer Krik Danva, who'd been hand chosen by her former master to distract her because of…of what again? Ahsoka let out a sigh of frustration and sent another look at her companion.

Danva couldn't have been much younger than herself, and there was something about him that said he'd seen some horrible things. His jaw was set, and she could sense that while he looked like he was at peace, there was an internal war raging inside. She didn't know his history; he'd just said he wanted to kill Darth Vader, not why. She also didn't know if he knew who Darth Vader had once been, or if he knew that Ahsoka was once the apprentice to the dark Lord. She wasn't sure what the man she was with would even _do_ with that information, and decided that it was probably better that he didn't know, at least for the time being. At least until she was certain he wasn't trying to trap her.

"When is your contact going to be here?" Ahsoka asked.

"That's what's got me," Danva said, looking at a chrono hanging on the cantina wall. "He's always on time. He's never once been late. He should have been here already."

"Could the Empire have discovered about the meeting and taken your contact?" Ahsoka asked, knowing full well that that was a very real possibility, but Danva shook his head.

"No. He's better than that."

That rubbed Ahsoka the wrong way. "Better than what?" She was unable to bite her tongue. "Better than being captured by the Empire? Even the best can get caught."

Danva shook his head. "No, my contact is, was, a Jedi," he insisted.

Ahsoka let out a snort. Well, that answered one of her questions. Danva obviously didn't know who she was. The comment also have her a flicker of hope. Another jedi survived the purge? It had been nearly 20 years since the rise of the empire, and she knew there were little to no Jedi left.

"What was his name?" Ahsoka asked, hoping to keep the eagerness out of her voice. She hoped that maybe the jedi was someone she once knew. The idea of seeing a familiar face-she stopped herself from becoming too hopeful.

Her hopes deflated when Danva shook his head. "He never told me. I just called him by a code name."

"What was it?" Ahsoka asked him.

"Whiplash," Danva replied after a moment's hesitation. The name didn't ring a bell to Ahsoka.

"How long do we wait for him?" Ahsoka asked after a few minutes of silence. Her companion shrugged, and she mentally rolled her eyes. Instead, she ordered another drink and stared into its contents, deciding whether or not it would be best if she were to excuse herself to the privy and just not come back.

Just as she was deciding, a Sullustan sat down at their table. His basic was broken, but he was understandable: "Whiplash captive. Demand credits."

Ahsoka reached out with the force and felt nothing to fear from the newcomer. Danva immediately tensed, however, and Ahsoka felt him about to explode. She put a hand on his forearm to stop him and spoke.

"How do we know you have what we want?"

"Have name. Proof enough," the Sullustan said, obviously insulted at Ahsoka's lack of faith.

Ahsoka nodded slowly, as if she were thinking. "Who has him, exactly?"

The Sullustan faltered, and then slowly replied. "Black…sun…"

Ahsoka shook her head this time. "No one has him, do they? You overheard our conversation and thought you could make some quick credits, hmm?"

The Sullustan started to panic, and Ahsoka felt the force warn her: he was fumbling for his blaster. Ahsoka saw that she had two choices: They could have a shootout, or she could risk someone seeing her use the force on him. She'd rather not have another fight so soon after her run in with the mysterious force user, so she quickly waved her hand in his wave, using the force to influence him.

"You realize you made a mistake, and you want to go home now."

His eyes glazed over and he needed his head. "Made mistake. Want go home." He scooted his chair away from the table and walked away.

Ahsoka looked around the cantina: no one seemed overly interested, and the force wasn't telling her to leave. She glanced towards Danva, who on the other hand, was staring at her.

"You're a-" he began but she shushed him.

"Speak another word and you'll get both of us killed," she said darkly. He still stared at her. "Why again did you think Darth Vader wanted you to…do whatever it was he wanted you to do to me. Which was what, again?"

"He didn't tell me who you were, just that you needed to be distracted for a while. He's going against the Rebellion, and I suppose doesn't want you underfoot." Danva's explanation brought memories to the surface, memories of a man who refused to have a youngling underfoot while he fought in the clone wars. It sent a cold chill through her body. He still thought of her as just a child.

Ahsoka clenched her fists and inhaled sharply. "Well then, forget your contact. We need to make as much trouble for the Empire. Whatever they're planning can't be good."

Danva looked at her like she was crazy. "I came here to warn you, so you wouldn't be killed."

Ahsoka decided to trust him with one more fact about herself. "Do you know who the Chosen One was?"

He nodded. "Yeah. He was Anakin Skywalker, one of the first jedi murdered by Vader. Why?"

Another question answered. He didn't know that his former superior was Skywalker. "Well, I was Skywalker's padawan. I was trained by the Chosen One."

Awe filled Danva's eyes, but then another emotion quickly took place; determination. "You're gonna help me kill him," he said with conviction.

Ahsoka shook her head. "No. I'm not going to kill Vader."

"You hate him as much as I do," Danva said, his voice dark. "I'll make a deal with you. I'll help keep the Empire busy so the Rebellion can do whatever it is they do, but in return, you have to help me kill Darth Vader."

Ahsoka didn't need his help. She'd been on her own for a long time, and honestly worked better by herself. But there was something about the young man before her that begged for her help, and not in the way he was currently asking. He needed guidance. He needed some way to fuel the anger that was threatening to take control of his life. Ahsoka couldn't leave him on his own, or he'd surely fall to the darkside. He was already walking a very delicate line, she could sense that much.

"Do you understand the price that comes with taking someone's life?" she asked. "Have you ever killed anyone before?"

He shook his head. "No, but I know I'd be okay with killing Vader."

"Even if they deserve it, taking someone else's life is a burden not many can carry, and many succumb to that burdern, or worse."

"What's worse?" Danva asked, his tone indicating that he didn't quite believe her.

Ahsoka shut her eyes and felt the weight that had permanently settled on her soul, the weight of every man she had ever killed, a weight that no longer bothered her. "It stops hurting you."

* * *

Luke and Han had split up some time ago, deciding that it would be safer that way. They could still communicate via their holocommunicator, but in case their aggression became too much to handle, they'd be too far away from each other to do any damage. Chewy stayed with the ship, and was trying to reassemble Threepio.

"The information on the datapad said that the some of the troops ventured into the woods hoping to find whatever was causing the strife," Luke said into the holocommunicator. "But they never returned."

" _You're making it sound like a ghost story, Luke,_ " Han said, a mixture of annoyance and humor in his voice.

Luke chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose it does sound like one. Hopefully we won't run into a ghost on this trip."

Han shared his laugh. _"Have you even seen a ghost?"_

"Nope."

" _Don't. It's not exactly like a walk in the park on a sunny day."_

"Thanks for the picture," Luke said, rolling his eyes. Something was off, though. There was something about the planet. He wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like everything inside of him was screaming at him, telling him to get off of this planet and to go far away. But that was just the paranoia acting out again. Surely whatever had caused him to doubt Han was causing him to want to run away. But Luke wasn't a runner; he was going to find out what was causing the aggression and then…what?

"Han, what are we gonna do if we find out who's controlling our emotions?" Luke asked.

" _Kill him_ ," was Han's reply. Luke rolled his eyes and didn't reply.

It was getting darker as night approached again. The planet rotation wasn't as long as Tatooine's and Luke suddenly found himself homesick for his home world. Why had he even decided to leave and go with Ben? The reminder of his aunt and uncle's deaths brought another wave of sadness upon him, and Luke forced himself to sit down and finally process the loss of the only family he'd ever had. He didn't know what he was going to do without them. He didn't even have Ben to guide him.

"Luke, don't panic."

Fear shot through Luke's heart when he heard the voice. He jumped up and had his blaster out. "Who's there?"

"You can't see me, Luke. Your emotions are too clouded. But I'm here. I will always be with you."

That voice was _his_ voice. "Ben?" he asked timidly. "Is that you?"

"Calm your mind, Luke. Take control of your emotions; don't let them cloud your judgment."

Not understanding, Luke looked all around him. Maybe this was just the planet playing another trick on him? But Luke didn't hear the voice again, which only brought on more confusion. He carefully bit his lip and focused on what the voice had said. Obi-Wan or not, whoever had spoken to him was actually on the right track. Whoever was trying to control them did so through emotions. If Luke had a good hold on what was going on inside, then perhaps he wouldn't fall so easily to the constant nagging inside.

He went over in his mind a thousand times what Ben had taught him on the _Falcon_ while they were on their way to Alderaan. _Focus. Don't think. Let the force guide your actions._ Granted, he was practicing with his lightsaber when he was given those instructions, but he supposed he could probably apply those same ideals to almost every aspect of his life.

Sitting down once more, Luke shut his eyes and imagined himself in a room. Outside of the room was the forest he was in, and he shut the door, essentially shutting everything else out. Inside the room, there were no forces trying to kill him, no dead relatives, and no emotions. Just _peace._ Luke let the peace fill up inside of him, and suddenly he wasn't alone in the room. There was a spirit of some kind, though it was in the shape of a man, but seemed to be made up of an ethereal light.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

 _I am destruction._ A cold feeling entered Luke, and something inside of him shifted. The room began to close in on him, and monsters were outside, clawing their way in.

Fear wrapped itself around Luke's brain, and suddenly he found himself alone and in a dark forest again. His heart was beating fast, and he could feel the presence of something else in the forest with him, very close by. He grabbed his holocommunicator.

"Han, are you there?"

There was static on the other end, and Luke was suddenly terrified that his friend was dead. There was another crack of static, and then Han's voice broke the silence.

" _Well, I was sleeping, but yeah. I'm here_." The frustration was more than evident in Han's voice.

Relief spilled into Luke, and he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Han, I don't think we're dealing with a real person here."

" _What_?" Luke could almost _see_ the confusion on Han's face.

"I had a…a vision, I guess. We're dealing with a spirit, or a ghost, or something. And it's evil Han. It's so very evil."

" _Did you have a nightmare, Lukey_?" Han mocked.

Anger flared inside of Luke. "Really Han? Not a nightmare, a vision. This spirit called itself 'destruction'."

There was silence for a few seconds. " _What're you gonna do about it?"_

Luke suddenly had the sinking feeling that Han expected _him_ to take care of it. And he supposed perhaps he should; he was the force user, after all. Although, the term force user should be applied very liberally in this case.

"I dunno, Han. I'm…I don't know." Luke felt fear creep up his spine once more before gripping at his heart.

" _Hey, don't freak out on me Luke. You're an incredibly brave person. Why don't we try to meet up? Do you see any recognizable landmarks_?"

Luke looked around, but it was too dark for him to see anything more than just shapes. He heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. "No, Han. It's too dark."

" _Okay, at first light we agree on a place to meet, and then head there. We'll deal with everything else together, okay_?"

"Okay Han. First light. Don't back out of this, now," Luke said, honestly afraid that his friend would leave him to fend for himself.

" _Never Luke. I never leave a friend behind."_

Those few words brought a sense of peace to Luke's soul, and he nodded to himself. "Okay Luke," he whispered. "It's only a few hours. Nothing to be too worried about. You can handle this. Remember that time that Biggs made you sleep out in beggar's canyon? And you heard those sandpeople out? That was way worse than right now. Just…just stay calm." But despite the reassuring words he told himself, Luke felt the cold sting of fear all night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hullo everyone! Sorry this wasn't updated last night. I really have no excuse other than I completely forgot I was doing this! Updating will be on time for now on, though, so don't worry about that!**

 **Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed this story! And don't forget to leave a review. It's the authors way of getting paid.**

 **Hope everyone has a good week!**

 **MLV**

* * *

Darth Vader peered out of the view screen into the blackness of space. If all went according to plan, then in less than two days all the major leaders, as well as a good piece of the rebellion, would be destroyed, along with the so-called hope that the usurpers were trying to spread across the galaxy. His spy had sent word that the rebels were fleeing their base and moving on. He had yet to learn where this new base was, but in a few short hours his spy would report back and then he could start his plan of attack.

Vader quelled the thought that the success of this entire plan rested on the shoulders of a simple intelligence officer. As long as he kept Tano busy for even a few days, then all would be right. Once the leaders of the rebellion were destroyed, then Vader could focus all of his attention on finding and capturing his elusive former apprentice. The togruta had proven herself over and over to be worthy of his time and attention. The slipperiness of the rebellion was due to an overall lack of ability on the side of the Empire; as much as he loathed admitting it, but when he tried to work with multitudes of other creatures-oftentimes incompetent of catching even a dewback on Tatooine-things tended to get screwed up. But when it came to Tano…the moment the time was right, he would seize her.

Perhaps he could even convince her to join him in his quest to rule the Empire. But even as the thought entered his mind, he knew his headstrong former apprentice would never betray her ideals. She was too stubborn. He also knew that she would never trust a single word uttered from him, regardless of the bond they had once shared. But perhaps he could fool her into believing that he truly wanted the Emperor dead, which wasn't actually a lie. Perhaps his former apprentice could be tricked into creating an alliance to destroy the emperor-she was an idealist, after all-and then once the deed was done, he could turn around and destroy her before she had the chance to do the same to him.

He sensed someone at his meditation chamber door, and that gave him an excuse to stop his thought process before it veered into an area in which he did not wish to go. He opened the chamber and saw the operative in charge of bringing him news that was sent by his spy.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" Vader asked, anticipating good news.

"I'm afraid I have some rather bad news, lord Vader. The rebel leaders all took separate transport ships, and they've all headed in different directions." The lieutenant's voice trembled by the end, and his hands were wringing together. But the lieutenant stood tall and never once broke eye contact with the sith.

Anger flared inside of Vader, and he struggled to keep his calm. If the small man could stand in front of the most dangerous man in the galaxy and deliver bad news, then Vader could at least not kill the man right away. But the answer was obvious, and the lieutenant's ignorance was annoying.

"Tell our spy to remain where he is and to transmit the coordinates when he receives them. The ultimate ending will happen, even if it takes a few more days."

The resolve was breaking in the lieutenant. "B-but lord Vader, I'm afraid that's what he's trying to tell us. He doesn't believe they're going to land for some time. Apparently according to their protocol-"

Vader stood up, and the room was suddenly filled with his anger. Pieces of furniture began to vibrate, and the air grew thick. The lieutenant visibly trembled, obviously fearful for his life, but he still refused to break his eye contact. This reaction gave Vader a sense of pleasure, and he calmed down somewhat, but his anger with the spy was still a thousand fold. He would not take excuses for not getting a job done.

"I don't care about their protocol. Tell the spy that he needs to give me some tangible information in one day, or else he shall suffer the same fate as the rebels."

The lieutenant nodded vigorously, and carefully strode out of the room, saluting the sith before exciting. Vader watched him leave and allowed the frustration to fuel his desire to destroy the rebellion. He glanced back out at the stars. An unsettling feeling overcame him, and he moved away from the scene. Perhaps the crew of his ship needed more persuasion to get their mission done, and he assumed a demonstration was in order. He marched out of his meditation chamber and onto the main deck.

"Lord Vader, exciting news!"

Vader turned to the lieutenant from a few moments ago had regained his resolve and stood tall once more, triumph lining his eyes. "We've gotten word from our spy: he has the whereabouts of Princess Leia Organa and is currently transmitting them to us."

Vader felt a surge of pleasure. Though the princess was not the only piece on the board, she was a high ranking official and if captured (Vader ignored the word _again_ ) would surely dampen the resolve of the rebellion.

"Plot an intercept course, midshipman," he ordered. In a matter of hours, the Empire would once again be in the possession of the Rebellions golden child. With her death would also undoubtedly bring about a discouragement in the rebellion. Nothing was like crushing your opponent's spirit before dealing the final, swift blow. He felt a small amount of perverse pleasure at the thought of recapturing her after her escape from the Death Star. Perhaps he could merely claim her dead and discover why she was able to resist his interrogations?

"Lord Vader, there is one other thing," another man said, his voice low. He walked over to the Sith lord. His voice did not carry the enthusiasm of a man bringing good news. "Delta team has lost contact with the subject."

Intense anger and rage filled Vader's spirit, and a few of the computers began to spark under the pressure. That _damned_ woman had done it again. Even the men personally trained by himself couldn't even keep an eye on her. He willed himself to calm down. The success of his mission relied on keeping her on Coruscant.

"Where was she last seen?"

"She was still on the lower levels of Coruscant."

"Double the stormtrooper presence on all docking bays, including private ones. Make sure there is no possible way for her to leave that planet," Vader ordered.

"But my lord, wouldn't it be better for us to send a legion of troopers to find her?" the man questioned.

Vader's anger flared once more at the impertinence of being question by someone of such lowly standing. He used the force to grab ahold of the man's throat and squeezed tight.

"We need her in one place, _lieutenant_. We need to keep her there long enough for our mission to be completed. Is that understood?"

A pitiful nod and a grunt was the reply. Vader let go of the man, who fell to the floor. Vader walked away from the scene, hoping that it had reaffirmed just how serious he was about completing this mission.

Once he was alone in his chambers, Vader removed his suit. He hated living in that thing, even if it demanded a sense of terrifying fear from anyone who looked upon it. He focused on breathing techniques to help his lungs have an easier job, and soon his mind grew restless.

 _Vader. Darth Vader._

Immediately on the alert, Vader sensed that no one was outside of his chamber, but the voice was still there, and was whispering his name.

 _I know you can hear me. I am coming for you, Vader. You cannot hide from me, nor can you keep me here. I know you too well; you are too stuck in your ways. You have become predictable._

He instantly recognized the voice, though how she was able to send a telepathic message so far away was unknown to him.

 _I am coming for you, Vader. You cannot hide from me. You cannot run. I am coming._

A sense of foreboding entered his soul. If there was one thing that Vader had learned over the past twenty years of dealing with his former student was this: she was stubborn. She would never give up until she had gotten what it was that she wanted. He didn't, however, know what that was. The foreboding gave way to determination, and he replied with three simple words: _I am waiting._

* * *

The base was quiet, excepting the blaring, white noise from the alarms. Leia looked out the thick, sturdy viewing window and wondered what the new base would look like. It wouldn't be as pretty as Yavin 4, she knew that much.

"Come on princess, it's your turn to get on a ship," Lando's words startled her, and she whirled to face him. "It's okay, it's just me. Nothing to be scared about."

"Oh, sorry, I was thinking," Leia said, a bit flustered. Sending one last glance at the view, Leia turned her attention to the abandoned control room. "Is that really it? Is everyone gone?"

Lando nodded, resting his hands on his hips. "Yup, excepting two or three people, yourself and me, of course. Oh, and we can't seem to find your personal droid anywhere."

Leia faced Lando once more. "Threepio? You can't find him?"

Lando placed his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to comfort, but she simply shrugged them off. She didn't want to be coddled. "I'm sure he made it on one of the other transports. But he's for sure not on this base."

Leia nodded slowly. "I hate that we're leaving without some kind of clue of where Han and Luke are, or even how to let them know where we're going." She started to move away from him, but then stopped. Where exactly would she go?

"Like I've told you before," Lando said, taking her hand and giving it a friendly squeeze. "They're smart. They'll be okay. Now. Shall we head to our transport?"

Leia laughed softly, but inside worry still clawed at her heart. But the safety of the entire rebel fleet was more important than calming the growing monster in the pit of her stomach. "Okay, let's go."

"Do you have any idea where our next base is located?" Lando asked once they were safely inside the transport.

Leia gave him a questioning look. "'Our base'? Where you planning on staying with us?"

Lando chuckled. "Well, I suppose so. For a while, anyway. At least until Han comes back. I'm pretty sure he'd have my hide if I didn't look after you."

Leia blushed, and turned her head to hide it from the dashing business man. "Oh, I don't think Han's too worried."

Lando chuckled, and there was something in the way he did that made Leia curious. What did Lando know that she didn't? But even if Lando knew something, he was too close to Han to reveal anything to her. And then again, were they that close? Leia didn't even know how they met. Perhaps they were just acquaintances, and Lando simply owed Han a favor. Leia turned back towards him.

"So how did you meet Han anyway?"

"We actually met at a sabaac tournament."

Leia gave him a dubious look. "Really?"

Lando nodded solemly. "Yup. That was the day that he took the _Falcon_ off of my hands."

"He won his ship in a game?" Leia asked, her eyebrows rising in surprise. "From you?"

Lando nodded again. "Yup."

A small smile found its way on Leia's lips, and she turned away from Lando. Something about Han winning his most prized possession in a sabaac tournament. Her thoughts wandered to the smuggler. Worry stabbed at her heart, and she wondered where he was, if he was doing alright. Glancing at her hands, she wondered if he would get the message she left behind for him. It was a risk, she knew, to leave it for him. If the Empire found out-

"Incoming fire!"

Their transport jostled and Leia found herself being thrown to the other side of the ship. Bracing herself as she landed, Leia managed to only strain the muscles in her hands. Quickly standing up, Leia ran to the pilot.

"What's happening?" she demanded to know.

The pilot was working quickly on the controls, but Leia could see that he was badly injured. "A star destroyer, out of nowhere, your highness. It fired on us, not a kill shot." The pilot strained under the pain, and he bit his lip. "I'm going to try to find a place to land."

Leia left the pilot to find Lando. He had a small wound over his right eye, but otherwise seemed unharmed. "Lando, please go help the pilot. He's injured, and he might need a hand." She used her best 'authoritative' voice, leaving no room to argue.

At that moment, the warning lights went on, and the whole room was engulfed in a flashing red.

"Your highness, I suggest you sit down and strap yourself in. I'm going to try to make this as smooth as possible, but that isn't exactly saying much." The pilot's voice was strained, but strong. Leia admired the pilot, and made a mental note to commend him when they were back with the rebellion and away from the Star Destroyer.

"Leia, strap yourself in!" Lando's face was close to her ear so that she could hear him over the blaring alarms. Leia pushed him back and attempted to stand-someone needed to go help the pilot.

The next few moments happened in slow motion for Leia: the blaring of alert alarms drowned out any other noise. Lando had moved away from her, and was now yelling something to the pilot, but did not hear what he said. The transport stopped rocking, and for a moment she thought that everything would be alright, but right then the blinking lights held, and there was a steady stream of red lights. A soft voice in the back of her head whispered at her, telling her how important it was in that very moment for her to strap herself down. What struck her the most was how much the voice sounded like Luke.

"Incoming fire!" The phrase from before was shouted again, but this time Leia was ready. The ship rocked, and she saw Lando get thrown from his spot in the cockpit and land hard on the floor. He didn't move. Fear struck her heart, and she began to unstrap herself to help when another shot hit their transport. There was a blinding light, and Leia found it hard to focus on anything. Her fingers fumbled with the straps, but her vision was so blurred by the piercing light.

The light got brighter and brighter, until Leia could see nothing at all. Her arms flailed as she finally got loose of her binds and flung herself towards where she had last seen Lando. The pilot was yelling something, but there was a white noise in the background that refused to let anything else be heard. Leia grabbed Lando and pulled him towards the seating and attempted to strap him down. She had barely secured the first section when the pilot screamed something at her. This time, however, she heard him.

"We're crashing!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! Look, I broke 4,000 words on this chapter! Isn't that exciting? I figured that if I'm updating once a week then I should give you a nice and long chapter.**

 **I'd like to thank my loyal reviewer yellow14 for sticking with me from the beginning!**

 **I'm posting this a day earlier because I won't be around tomorrow evening and didn't want to be late again. Please leave a review!**

 **Anyway, I hope everyone has a fantastic week and a great Thanksgiving (for us Americans, anyway) and for those of you not celebrating, have a happy week anyway! And good luck to my fellow University Students. It's almost over!**

 **MLV**

* * *

Danva had tried convincing her into talking further about her relationship with Vader, who Anakin was and why he wasn't around anymore. She shut him down each time, telling him that they were stories for another time, like after she died.

"You can't keep me from getting the answers that I want," he said, and Ahsoka remembered a certain youngling she once knew who would throw tantrums each time she didn't get her way.

"No," she slowly agreed. "I can keep you from asking me, though."

"Why," Danva asked, clueless about the subtle hints she was sending his way. "Why is it so hard to tell me? It's not like I'm gonna turn around and tell the Empire. It's not anything they probably don't know, anyway."

Ahsoka slammed her hand down on the table, unable to control her anger. "Why?" she spat out. "Why can't you get the hint and stop talking about it? Can't you tell that something happened that maybe I don't want to relive? Or perhaps I simply don't know? Or maybe I just don't want to tell you." The words seethed through her teeth and she pulled away from him, not at all embarrassed at her outburst. She crossed her arms and stared him down.

"I'm sorry," Danva said slowly. "I didn't mean to push. I just…I'm so angry with Vader. I know that isn't an excuse, but I feel like any information on him would help me destroy him."

"I already told you that I won't help you do that."

"Yes, you did," he began. "I just don't know anything about him other than he lives in that damn suit. I don't even know what he even looks like."

Her master's face popped uninvited into her memory and she pushed it away. "What do you know about the suit?"

Danva shrugged. "Sometimes when he's angry, he holds his breath. I once heard him trying to catch his breath once, when he thought he was alone. I think, as strong as he is, he's also really weak."

A flicker of pity sparked in her heart, but she knew that no matter how weak he might be, he was still a monster. People were starting to stir around them, and the room suddenly felt like it was closing in on her.

"We need to leave."

After leaving the crowded cantina, Ahsoka led Danva to an abandoned apartment building, close to where the explosion from a few days earlier had been. During her chase with the mysterious force user, she'd seen it being shut down for one reason or another. It was easy enough to break into, and they chose the most comfortable apartment. Unfortunately, they were all unfurnished, though someone had left behind a few sleeping mats. Danva was passed out, propped up against a wall. Though his eyes were closed, he looked as if he was on high alert. Ahsoka watched him. She wondered how many times he'd fallen asleep during his time at the Imperial Academy. She chuckled to herself; she could imagine just how he'd gotten so good at acting awake. All he had to do was learn to keep his eyes open. Even she would have been convinced. At least for a moment, anyway.

But now wasn't the time to be studying her new companion. She needed to come up with a plan. It was important that they get off Coruscant, and soon. Her mind was racing with all the different ways that they could escape. After she had contacted her former master, she knew that he would be on high alert, and therefore every imperial officer on Coruscant would be on high alert. She knew that was a risky move, and Danva had made his opinion of that quite clear, but it was important that she show Vader that no matter what he did, she would be two steps ahead of him. Also, she might be able to slip by the Stormtroopers in the confusion.

Ahsoka stood and paced the room, thinking about what Vader's next move would be. He would close off all of the landing pads, which meant that they wouldn't be able to get her ship back. The thought saddened Ahsoka; she loved that ship, but it wasn't worth risking her life over. Maybe when this was all over she'd return for it, or get someone to smuggle it off the planet for her. Perhaps Solo and his Wookiee friend would be up for the job, should she pay enough. Something told her that he would understand the partialness to her ship.

A though occurred to her. What if she and Danva were smuggled off the planet on an Imperial ship? Danva was still an Imperial officer, and he could probably get use of a ship to go off planet without the Imperials batting an eye. The only problem was she would have to put an insane amount of trust in a man she hardly knew, and that was an issue that she wasn't quite ready to deal with. But even as she tried thinking of a new plan, she knew that this was probably the best way.

But no. Vader would think of that. They had done similar things together before he turned. She had to think outside the box. The problem was Danva. Ahsoka looked over at the sleeping man. He didn't look like he had an agenda. Ahsoka gently probed him with the force; he was sleeping, which meant that his guard was down. His thoughts were full of hatred towards the Empire, hatred so fierce that she had to pull away. Such hatred gave her reassurance that she would not be betrayed by this man. At least not to the Empire, but she still didn't trust him.

But that didn't help their situation. She needed to get off this planet, and soon. Whatever the Empire had planned, they didn't want her getting involved. Well, even though she hated to admit it, she was stuck here. And then it came to her: even if she got off the planet, she'd still need to find out where the Empire was planning their attack. That could take days. However, she was stuck on the planet, and she knew that Vader will put more troopers in the lower city, as well as around the landing platforms. This, however, would leave other targets less guarded. Targets like the Imperial Palace.

Ahsoka stopped pacing and grinned. Vader would never imagine her to attack such a high profile target, and while he was technically right, she could at least make it look as if there was an attack. Blame it on the rebels? Obviously that is where the blame would automatically go, but she was sure there were underground groups here on Coruscant that would take credit. Pirates hated the Empire as much as the rebels did. She used the force to rouse Danva, who seemed startled that there wasn't actually someone tapping him on the forehead.

"Did you think of something?" he asked, rubbing his forehead with two fingers.

"Is the Emperor, or any other high profile Imperial Officials at the palace?" she asked, taking her lightsaber about and placing it on the ground in front of her.

Danva watched as she began to take it apart and shook his head. "I don't know."

Ahsoka paused in her disassembling. "Okay, I suppose it doesn't matter. No one would know that, unless they were in intelligence?"

Danva nodded slowly at first. "Yeah, even I don't get to know where the Emperor is at any given time."

"Good. I have a plan," she explained. "I'm going to set up an attack on the Imperial Palace, make it look like pirates did it."

Danva's brows furrowed, and he crossed his arms. "How, exactly, are you going to accomplish that?"

She waved away his question. "You don't need to worry about that. I need you to go to the landing bays and secure us a ship. Steal one if you have to. I don't care, but just get one."

"How am I supposed to steal one?"

Ahsoka faced him and gave him an incredulous look. "Figure it out. You'll have plenty of time." He opened his mouth to say something else, but she held up a finger. "Nope. Just do it. I don't care."

He didn't say anything else. "Good. Before I continue, I need to know something. I need to know that I can trust you, Danva. I need to know that you won't betray me."

"If I wanted to, I think I would have done it by now. Don't you?"

Ahsoka hoped so; her life depended on it. But she continued explaining her plan anyway, though she made sure to keep certain details to herself. "I'm going to procure some explosives and set them around the edge of the palace, rig them to blow, and then meet you at the landing bay. You will have our ship by then, understand?"

"You and your karking ship," Danva muttered under his breath. "I get it."

"Good," Ahsoka, and hoped more than she had in the past twenty years that they would be able to pull this off.

It wasn't as hard as she'd expected to get explosives. They weren't high grade in the slightest, but there was a lot of them. Now all she had to do was get them into the palace. Perhaps she could impersonate a gardener. Ahsoka muffled a laugh; she imagined the Emperor berating Vader for teaching his former pupil to be so smart. Her laugh ended in a long sigh. She needed to focus.

It didn't take more than an hour to get enough bags of fertilizer to hide the explosives, and an easy conversation where she convinced a random woman to swap clothing with her. The only downside was now she didn't have a place to hide her lightsaber.

The security at the palace was high, but easy enough to get through. The first few checkpoints were the hardest; she dare not use the force to affect their minds. If she got caught, there would be no trial. But once she got into the inner wall, she knew it would be smooth sailing. She didn't need to get any closer. Placing the explosives was actually harder than she imagined. Guards patrolled the grounds constantly, and she was never alone for more than two seconds at a time. She worked quickly and quietly, using the force to keep her calm and focused. A wrong move would set the guards off, and she didn't need to deal with that.

When she was on the last one, she set the timer for 30 seconds, giving her barely enough time to get out. But if she were caught in the aftershock of the blast, the guards would be stupid enough to assume that she was a victim. No one in their right mind would blow themselves up trying to escape, right?

A twinge of guilt stabbed her heart, and she remembered a particular person who hadn't escaped an explosion so that she could get away. But no. She would not think about that right now. She needed to escape. She got up and walked away from the final bomb, counting down the seconds. She braced herself, and then the force from the explosions propelled her forward. She slammed into a wall and everything went dizzy. A Stormtrooper ran up to her and asked if she was alright, and she nodded wildly. He left her to go check on a few others caught in the blast, and she carefully stood up. Her ankle was injured, but she pushed herself so that she could get away.

* * *

It was an hour later, and the imperial docking bay was mostly empty. Ahsoka couldn't believe how long it had taken her to get here from the Imperial Palace. She had been stopped half a dozen times and asked who she was, why she was in the vicinity of the palace and why she wasn't with a medical droid. As difficult as it had been not to just use the force to get out of the situation, Ahsoka knew that she had made the right decision to repeat the same conversation over and over.

Now she saw two Stormtroopers posted at each ship. After a quick count, she saw that there were six ships in total, making her have to deal with twelve troopers. Reaching out with the force, Ahsoka searched for a sign of Danva, but could not sense him. Frustration grew within her and there was a part of her that decided to just leave him behind. Just as the thought entered her mind, the man strode confidently into the docking bay and walked right up to a trooper.

"I'm going to need to commandeer one of these ships," he said, his voice strong. Ahsoka noticed that he had a thicker Coruscanti accent when talking to imperials. "There was an attack on the Imperial Palace, and I need to take a diplomat off planet."

The trooper turned to his partner, and Ahsoka could feel the confusion in the room. "What kind of diplomat?"

"A former rebel. They've seen the error of their ways and were about to give us the location of the rebel base. However, they insisted that we protect them from the rebels, who would be sure to keep them from talking to us." Danva sighed deeply and leaned forward. "Do you want to be the one to tell the Emperor we don't have the location of the rebel base because you stopped me from doing my job?"

Ahsoka's eyebrows lifted in surprise; Danva was damn convincing.

The trooper shook his head. "No, of course not. But we've been given orders to not let anyone off the planet."

Danva sighed once more and rubbed his forehead. "Of course you weren't told about this. You're only a lowly Stormtrooper. You don't know a thing. Which is why, when a superior officer tells you that plans have changed, you change the plans!" Danva's voice rose as he neared the end of his sentence, and the troopers flinched.

"Alright, alright," the second one said. "Bring them out."

"I need you both to excuse us. They do not wish to be seen on the off chance that the rebellion hasn't noticed their change in political standing."

The troopers faced each other once more, and for a moment Ahsoka was afraid that Danva had pushed them too far. But after a moment that seemed to never end, they left their post. Danva turned towards the entrance and raised his thumbs.

Ahsoka was on high alert. She reached out with the force, taking in her surroundings. Nothing nearby posed any danger to her. She supposed that should have comforted her, but she didn't allow her guard to go down. The ship was just up ahead.

"I'm piloting the ship," Ahsoka told Danva when she reached him. He opened his mouth to protest, but must have seen how determined Ahsoka was, because he didn't reply. He merely unlocked the ship and the two walked in.

The ship was so different from Ahsoka's in every way. Everything inside this one looked so pristine and clean. It felt too clean, like the owner of this ship was being forced to keep it up to impossible standards. _How like the Imperials,_ Ahsoka couldn't help but think.

"Follow me," Danva said, and he led Ahsoka to the cockpit. He gestured to the pilot's seat, and she sat down.

"I need to put in the codes so that we can takeoff," Danva said, and he punched a numbered sequence into the computer. After a moment, he stepped back. "Okay, we're good."

Ahsoka waited for him to be sitting in the co-pilot's chair before taking off. They left coruscant air space without any trouble.

"So where are we headed to now?" Danva asked.

"The Empire is up to something, and they needed me occupied so that I can't cause any problems. We either need to find out what their plan is, or strike the empire in small areas and cause enough trouble that they have to withdraw their plans."

"How do you know that will work?" he asked.

"It's what Vader will do," she replied. "He won't be able to think about anything else."

Danva looked at her, and Ahsoka could tell he was trying to figure something out. "How do you know Vader?" he asked slowly, as if he wasn't sure if he should be asked this.

Ahsoka shrugged. "I've run into the Empire numerous times, and I've made many enemies. He's simply one of those enemies."

Danva wasn't impressed with her answer. "No, this is personal isn't it? It is on his end. It was like…he knew how you worked. How you operated. Like he once knewyou, and it was different than the way he would talk about the rebel leaders, or even other Imperials. When you were mentioned, it was always very familiar."

 _Damn,_ Ahsoka thought to herself. _This kid is perceptive._ She looked at him, and then looked back at the computer. "Perhaps he did," she said, but offered no more on the subject. "So, where do you want to cause issues?" Danva didn't answer her for a moment, and she faced him again. He was no longer looking at her, and she sensed that he felt some guilt.

"I know the Empire was planning on transporting Wookiees from Kashyyyk as slaves. I think it was soon, too."

Ahsoka glanced at him oddly. "How do you know that?" She was probing, knowing that however he knew this information was laying heavily on his heart.

"I was intelligence. I knew about everything. It was my job."

Ahsoka wasn't satisfied with this answer, but she didn't say anything else. "Alright then. Where are the coordinates?"

Danva gave her the hyperspace route, and told her how the pilot's usually stopped by a small, backwards planet to sell one or two Wookiee pups for their own profit.

"And you never told any of your superiors about it?" Ahsoka asked, punching in the coordinates in the nav-computer.

"They paid me not to," Danva said. He didn't look at Ahsoka, but the guilt was so thick that she didn't think that she needed the force to tell how he felt about the situation.

Ahsoka offered no words of encouragement. She hated slavery, and felt like he deserved to stew in his guilt. He could have done something-should have done something, cover or no cover. And instead he took bribes. She calmed herself.

"Let's go right some wrongs," she mumbled to herself, and the ship leapt into light speed.

They were still a few hours away from the planet, which apparently was an unnamed rock that was nothing more than a meeting place between the Empire and space pirates. They would land the ship and wait for the Imperial's to arrive, and then free the Wookiees. Perhaps Ahsoka could send the Imperial's back to Vader with a message.

"Tell me about the Jedi?" Danva's sudden question pulled her out of her mental letter to Vader.

"What do you want to know, exactly?"

"What were they like? You're the only Jedi I really know, and I don't even know you."

Ahsoka sat back against her chair and sighed. "The Jedi believed in a calling. They believed they were meant to protect the galaxy. But at some point during the clone wars, that vision became skewed. Jedi were no longer protectors. They were warriors. Younglings were brought up with the knowledge of how to destroy battle droids, and how to withstand the temptation of the dark side. No longer were we taught how to best serve the galaxy or allowed to learn about the mysteries of the force. We were trained to harness the force as a weapon. We were trained to become killing machines."

"But the galaxy was at war. You were still protecting it," Danva insisted, and Ahsoka could tell that he genuinely believed that.

"The Jedi were never supposed to be warriors. Protectors, yes. But there is a difference between coming to the aid of someone who is being threatened and attacking a planet that doesn't have the same political viewpoint as yourself. And now they're all gone. Betrayed by the men they trusted most." Ahsoka's anger flared, and it dawned on her that she was as over what happened as she had previously thought. That was something that she needed to confront.

"Who betrayed you?" Danva asked quietly.

Ahsoka turned to him, and then looked away. "It doesn't matter, Danva. You need to learn how to put the betrayals behind you. It does no good to keep the hurt locked away. Let it go, or it will consume you."

Her thoughts drifted towards her former mentor, and how he was now just as skewed internally as he was physically. She didn't know what had happened to put him in that suit, just that he must have deserved it. Perhaps the Emperor had put him in it, hoping to create a more terrifying image of the Empire. Or perhaps Vader hadn't wanted to associate with the image of the chosen one. She supposed it didn't matter.

She glanced back at Danva, who was looking out into space. "You know, the Jedi tried recruiting me. My mother had already seen them take her brother. She couldn't bear to see me go. So she told them that galaxy or no, she wasn't giving me up. As it turns out, I'm not sensitive enough to the force for it to have made a difference. When I joined the Imperial army, they scanned me. And though I was-or am, I supposed-force sensitive, it wasn't even enough for me to be considered a threat to the Empire." He chuckled softly. "I suppose that's a good thing, right?"

Ahsoka smiled softly. "I suppose," she said slowly. "But you do realize that by helping me, you're forcing your hand. You will be labeled a threat to the empire."

"How long have you been fighting the Empire?" Danva asked, and Ahsoka was painfully aware of how hard he was ignoring her comment.

"Since the beginning," Ahsoka said, and suddenly felt the weight of all those years. "I was seventeen when the Empire was created."

"You've been fighting them for twenty years?" Danva almost shouted. "Why didn't you retire, or give yourself a break?"

She held in a breath and thought about the question. Why hadn't she? Time had flown by so fast that the past twenty years were nothing more than a blur. But what had caused her to keep going? Danva looked at her expectantly, but the question wasn't one that she could answer easily

"I suppose I have a personal connection to the Empire," she began, but she really wasn't sure what else to say. "So I have my own reasons for wanting it destroyed. And I can't stop until that happens. I won't be able to live, to be at peace, until the whole galaxy has peace." She paused once more, and then continued. "I've been fighting for most of my life. I don't think I know how to do anything else."

She hadn't expected to say that. To be fair, she hadn't even realized that was how she felt until just then. She clenched her teeth and stared at her companion. Danva said nothing, and Ahsoka hoped that share and tell was over. She didn't want to dig any further into her past that she already had.

The nav-computer beeped, telling them that they were nearing their destination. It sliced through the tension like a lightsaber and she felt a deep sigh erupt from deep within her. There were some places in her psych that she did not want to discuss. She turned away from him and focused on a smooth entery.

"Alright, Danva. Get ready for a fight."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers! So sorry this wasn't up last night; my brother was in town for the holiday and last night we were up until 1.30 am watching Droid Tales because we are essentially children (but seriously, I haven't laughed so hard in my life). Hope you all enjou this chapter!**

 **MLV**

* * *

The sun rose early, and briefly, Luke wished that he had more time to sleep. He threw his arm over his eyes in an attempt to keep the blinding light from seeping into his sleep drenched eyes. His sleeping mat was uncomfortable and felt like he was sleeping on the floor. However, when his mind reminded him of where he was, Luke's eyes flew open. He found himself more or less face to face with a terrifying tusked creature. Luke stifled a scream and not too gracefully scooted away. It was forging, using its tusks to move debris that was in its way. And while it didn't look like it cared too much about Luke, he wasn't going to take any chances. He carefully grabbed his comm-unit, and then inched away until his back hit a tree. Looking up, Luke decided that it would be safest on one of the trees branches. Keeping one eye on the beast, Luke attempted to use the force to help him climb.

Once safely out of reach, Luke began studying the animal. It was then that he saw the long, barbed tail. An uneasy feeling came over Luke; if he were hit with that tail, he was fairly certain it would mean the end of him. He'd read about creatures like this, and while he couldn't remember the name, he did remember that the barbs held a deadly toxin.

His radio crackled, and then he heard Han's voice: " _Luke, are you awake yet?"_

The radio scared the creature below, and it let out an angry squeal and slammed its tail into the trunk of the tree. The force shook the tree, not by much, but enough to have Luke send out a silent thank you to whoever was listen that he wasn't on the ground when that had happened.

" _Luke? Wake up!"_

Luke grabbed the comm and answered it. "Yeah, I'm awake Han." The animal was running away now, but Luke decided to stay in the tree for just a little bit longer. He'd rather stay up in the tree and risk being yelled at by the smuggler than possibly get hit by the animal.

" _Okay, from where you are, can you see a hill, okay, more like a small mountain. Anyway, this hill or mountain has one tree standing on it?"_

Luke scanned the horizon. One tree, a mountain like hill; he had to stretch and look over his shoulder before he spotted it. "Yeah Han, I see it."

" _Okay, I'm not too far away. I'm heading over to that tree. You meet me there, okay? Try to make it before dark. Wouldn't want you to have another nightmare."_

"Okay Han. I'm on my way," ignoring Han's comment even though a comeback was biting at him. Luke put the comm back into his pocket, and then slid down the tree. He landed awkwardly and his ankle immediately protested. The ankle was throbbing, but it wasn't enough for him to stay put and let it rest. It continued to protest every time Luke put any weight on it. But he had to get to that tree. Something in the back of Luke's mind told him that his life depended on it. He continued to hobble along, and eventually had fashioned himself a walking stick to help keep the weight off, but it didn't stop the pain that was already there.

"Great Luke. Look at how great your life is right now! Leave home, follow an old man you barely know into a dangerous mission to save a girl you barely know," he growled at himself. "And then you decide to go find out who your family is. Can't you ever be happy with where you're at?"

 _You had nothing left for you back home_ , a soft voice in the back of his mind told him. He barely heard it over all of the anger, but once he had, the voice grew louder, stronger. _You did more than find a stranger, you found a home, a family. You helped fix a broken man and found a lost princess._

"I didn't fix anything," Luke muttered under his breath.

 _Why do you think he stayed with us? Why do you think he followed you?_

Luke slapped himself. He was literally talking with himself. This planet was making him crazy. Or maybe he had gone crazy long before and it was just now starting to show.

 _Don't believe you're crazy, Luke._

There was something familiar about that voice. It was comforting, like a rare cool breeze on the desert sands of Tatooine. He didn't hear the voice again.

Dusk was starting to fall. His ankle was swollen, and Luke had needed to take over a dozen breaks in the past hour alone. He wished for a stream so that he could let his ankle rest in the cold water, but so far he hadn't run into any. He wasn't too far away from the meeting spot. He could even see a tiny Han pacing back and forth around the lone tree, but he didn't have the strength to keep going. He crumpled to the ground, careful to keep his ankle from getting injured further. Setting his ankle on a soft patch of grass, Luke looked back over to the mountain hill. Han was still pacing. Luke chuckled to himself and imagined what Han was saying to himself. Probably complaining about Luke taking forever.

Without any warning, Luke's senses were filled with one word: _Danger!_ It was as if he could only see the color red and everything was set on edge. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and it felt as if someone was breathing heavily right behind him. Luke wildly looked all around him, trying to find out whatever it was that was dangerous, but couldn't see anything. There was no one standing behind him. He grabbed his comm.

"Han, I think I'm in trouble."

Han's reply was immediate: " _Luke, where are you? Are you close?"_

"I can see the tree," Luke said, focusing again on the lone tree. "I can even see you, but I can't move any more. I hurt my ankle, and it's given me all it can get."

" _Damn it,"_ Han's voice was frustrated. " _How far away would you say? And in what direction?"_

Luke searched for another landmark. "Uh, I'm by a grove of trees."

" _Dammit Luke, this whole place is surrounded by trees!"_

Luke rolled his eyes. "Um, hold on. Let me try something." Setting his comm down, Luke focused on an old looking tree. He stretched his hands towards it and squeezed his eyes shut. He envisioned that tree falling, being ripped up from its roots. He imaged the noise it made; it was heard everywhere. It startled birds, who launched themselves from the trees they were in and made a great outcry at being disturbed. He envisioned the commotion it made; Han would be able to see it falling from where he stood. The big tree rested on younger ones, but eventually those too fell. The failing sunlight flooded into the grove, resting directly onto Luke. When he felt the sunlight on his face, he dropped his hands to the ground. His left landed on a spikey plant, and Luke let out a squeak. He gently rubbed it with his right and kept his eyes squeezed shut. He could see small lights twinkling in his vision, and he wasn't ready just yet to watch the world spin. He heard footsteps not far off and attempted to each for his lightsaber or blaster, but his arms felt heavy. He couldn't find them, so he opened his eyes and saw Han standing in front of him.

"Hi Han," Luke said, blinking rapidly. "How'd you get here so fast?"

There was an incredulous look on Han's face. "I just followed a path of destruction. How the hell did you do that?"

"Do what?" Luke asked. His vision was getting blurry, and there were spots on Han's face. "I think that there is something on you, Han. Are you dirty?"

Han frowned. "What? Luke, are you okay?"

"Are you cold?" Luke asked, and started clawing at his shirt. "I'm hot." His blinking quickened and he continued to try clawing at himself, but Han had moved just in front of him and grabbed his wrists.

"Luke! Stay with me buddy," his friend said worry creeping in his eyes. Luke shut his eyes and could hear Han's voice, but it was too far for him to make out any individual words. He wondered if Han was floating away.

Something inside Luke told him that he wasn't awake despite how real everything around him looked. Perhaps it was because everything blended together that gave it away. If Luke tried focusing on something that looked off, it would suddenly look just right, but out of the corner of his eye he could see the world breaking apart at the seams and no matter how hard he tried to focus on that, the images continued to dance away. He grew frustrated and stood up-he hadn't noticed he'd been sitting- but the ground was wrong too. Where he stood felt solid, but he could tell that everywhere else the ground was soft and bent under the weight of…of what?

Luke took a step and the ground instantly turned solid when his shoe touched the dirt. His arms were held out as if to keep his balance, and Luke turned and looked at his hands. In one he held his blaster, and in the other his lightsaber was ignited. A breeze ruffled through his hair, but the breeze held a darkness that sent a chill down his spine.

"Okay, you've got me," Luke said. "Obviously this isn't real. You need to talk to me without Han around. You've got me alone. Come out and talk with me."

The breeze returned, but it was stronger now and it tugged at his arms. He squeezed his hands against his weapons so not to lose them, and the breeze-now a full blown wind-continued to pull at him. Luke pulled his arms close to his body and shut his eyes. With his mind, he pushed back against the wind hard, and then it stopped.

"Am I worthy enough to talk to now?" he yelled out.

 _Open your eyes_.

Luke did as he was told. A woman in white gown stood before him. Long brown hair hung from her shoulders, and her eyes were kind. She wasn't too much taller than him, and something about her seemed eerily familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Who are you?" he asked, placing his blaster and lightsaber away.

"Who I am isn't important," she said. Her voice was laced with urgency, but it dripped from her mouth and flowed to his ears like syrup. He immediately trusted her and his senses shut off. "My message is important, however."

"What message?"

"You will meet you father," she promised. "And when you do, he will offer you something. You must take it, Luke. You must join your father in his quest. The safety of the galaxy depends on it."

"How do you know my name?" Luke asked. "And how do you know that I'm looking for my father?" Something was nagging at the back of his mind. It sounded like his name, but it was muffled and sounded like he was under water.

"Luke." His thoughts stopped and the suspicion was sated. "I am not here to hurt you, but to help you. I am here for you, son."

 _Son._ "What?" Luke asked, confusion blurring his vision. No, not blurring. He could see parts of her that weren't right, like the ground and the seams in the sky. If he didn't stare at it, he could see her hand wasn't a human hand. It was dead, rotting.

"I am your mother." Her voice was still soft, and her smile warm, but it had lost all power on Luke. He pulled out his lightsaber and ignited it, holding it away from him and pointed in her direction.

"I have no mother," he said. The wind picked up again and an ear piercing shriek broke out, but Luke has raised his mental shields. The woman shook her head and screamed and he watched as the dress turned to rags and she lost all of her hair. Her skin rotten in front of him, and then moved forward with lightning speed, impaling herself on his lightsaber. She raised a bony hand and placed it on his cheek. He could feel the cold air twirling around her fingers and brushing against his skin. Her rotting face leaned close to his until only a breath separated them.

"I am going to destroy you." The words formed in his head and weren't spoken, and Luke felt something akin to an aftertaste in his thoughts. As terrifying as the creature before him was, a spark of courage lit inside of him. He jerked his lightsaber upward and it sliced her in half. She fell away and landed on the floor as if she were solid.

"There is something you should know about me," he said, holding the lightsaber confidently. "I am not afraid of dying. So you can come after me with all you've got and I won't stop working to become a Jedi. My father was brave and fought the darkside up until the very end, and I plan on living that same way."

The body before him let out a laugh that sounded more like the grating noise of a broken power converter than a human laugh. "So you think, little farmboy."

The wind picked up again and the world around him began to dissolve. There was no longer ground below him and he was falling.

Some time had passed. The only reason Luke realized this was it was now completely dark. He pushed himself up off the ground and looked around, hoping that he would be able to recognize where he was. He remembered dreaming about the forest falling over, and then Han was standing in front of him. Or was he floating? Luke pressed a hand to his head. He couldn't remember. But he knew he wasn't in the same place as before. The trees were gone, and there was a fire a few feet away. He heard crunching noises and whirled around, all of his senses on edge, but it was Han. He was carrying some wood in his arms. When he saw Luke was awake, he set the wood down.

Han walked over to him and sat down. "Good, you're awake." Luke must have been swaying a little bit, because Han reached out to steady him. Either that or Han was going soft.

"Thanks," Luke mumbled. He looked around him; they were at the single tree on the stupid hill mountain. "How'd you find me?"

Han gave him an incredulous look. "You don't remember?" Luke shook his head. So Han launched into a story of how Luke managed to cause at least three trees to come tumbling down.

"They were lined up, too, leading me right to you."

Luke looked at his friend. The look on Han's face was…in awe? Terrified? Confused. "I think it was the force," he said, rubbing his eyes. He had a major headache.

"Well buddy, if you can knock down a bunch of old trees with your mind, just think of what you can do with just a little bit of training," Han said, shaking his head slowly.

"I thought you don't believe in the force," Luke said, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his temples.

"I really can't not believe in it anymore, buddy. It's kinda been thrown in my face."

And suddenly Luke remembered _why_ he had come here. He remembered the conversation with ghost-Ben. He remembered needing to find and contact Yoda.

"We need to leave this planet," Luke said. He stood up-too quickly-and the dizziness forced him back to his knees. His ankle began throbbing again, and he missed the time where he hadn't remembered he'd had one. He looked down on it and saw that Han had splinted it.

"Whoa there buddy. Calm down. We'll leave at first light, okay?" Han said, gripping his shoulder in an attempt to keep Luke grounded. "Anyway, what made you change your mind?"

Shaking his head and staring into the flames, Luke told him about seeing the spirit while he meditated. Luke told him about hearing Ben's voice, telling him to get off the planet. "It's dangerous here," Luke said, ending his tale.

Han was staring at him, and Luke could tell he was trying to process everything he'd just heard. "He told you his name was death?"

Luke shook his head. "No, he said it was 'destruction'. Which doesn't sounds any more pleasant than death," he said, a poor attempt at making a joke. Han didn't laugh.

"We'll alternate keeping watch. You go back to sleep. I'll wake you in a few hours."

Luke wanted to protest, but his head was really throbbing now, and his ankle felt like it was being stabbed. "Yeah, okay Han." He laid his head back down and shut his eyes, ready for sleep to overtake him.

When Han woke him, Luke could sense the sun was not too far away from rising. "You should have woken me sooner," Luke told him. Han merely shrugged before succumbing to sleep. Luke knew that he was for sure sleeping and not keeping an eye on him because he immediately began snoring.

Luke sat down next to the dying embers. Deciding to practice a bit more with his power, he stretched his hand towards the fire imagined the flames leaping skywards. He opened his eyes. No fire, only dying embers. Luke let his hand drop. He grabbed a few more pieces of wood and got the fire going manually. He briefly wondered why Han had let the fire go out, and then settled on the likely hood of Han falling asleep while on watch. Not that it mattered, but Luke still felt his anger flare. If Han could fall asleep on watch and put them both in danger, why couldn't he?

 _Calm your emotions._ The words that ghost Ben had whispered to him echoed through his thoughts. Luke inhaled deeply, held the breath for a few moments, and then slowly let it out. He didn't need to be upset with Han right now. The man had probably saved his life, and deserved a little bit of rest.

Luke grabbed a small stick and began to draw shapes in the dirt. Keeping watch was an incredibly boring job, which is why Luke had probably never done it before. Memories of playing with Biggs and the rest of the gang floated through his memory, and a happy sadness filled him. He missed his old life, and yet…and yet he knew that he was onto something great here. He was so much closer to finding out who his father was-something he would ask Yoda about once he met the former Jedi master.

The idea of meeting Yoda and then training under him sent thrills through his body. He couldn't wait to start his training. He couldn't wait to become a Jedi, and then avenge his aunt and uncle.

 _You don't want justice. You want vengeance. You want the murderers to feel what they made Beru and Owen feel._

The voice wasn't his own. "What do you want?" Luke demanded, his voice low and soft.

 _You want revenge, Skywalker. You will give into the darkside._ The voice spoke no more.

Luke let his hand rest on his blaster for the rest of his watch.

By the time Han woke, the sun was already high in the sky. "Why didn't you wake me?" he demanded, closely echoing Luke's own outburst from the night before.

Luke shrugged. "Because you needed the sleep. It's fine, I contacted Chewy, and he's gonna bring the _Falcon_ here anyway." There was an awkward silence and he could see the question forming in Han's mind. "I don't want to go back into the woods."

Luke noticed Han looking at him strangely, and Luke turned away from his friend. He didn't want Han to see the doubt that he was feeling. Han was surprisingly perceptive and now was not the time to have a heart to heart with the smuggler.

"Okay, Luke."

Luke inwardly groaned. Han knew something was wrong, and Luke was sure that at some point he would have to talk to him about it. But for now, it seemed as if Han was willing to let it go. For some reason he wasn't pushing it, which he was grateful for. Luke glanced towards the sky.

"Here comes Chewy," he said, and pointed at a small dot on the horizon. The dot got bigger, and soon the two could make out the shape of the _Falcon_.

Once the Wookiee had set the ship down, Han and Luke climbed aboard. Han immediately went to the cockpit, but Luke stayed in the main hold. Artoo beeped happily when he saw Luke, and Threepio bemoaned.

" _Oh_ master Luke!" the droid cried, throwing his arms up in despair. "Never leave me in the hands of that monster again!"

Luke laughed at the overly dramatic droid. "Okay Threepio. Whatever you say."

Artoo rolled up to him and whistled questioningly.

Luke nodded. "Yeah, we'll get Chewy to take us to the ship, and then we'll leave right after that. Sounds good?"

The Artoo unit squealed happily-apparently he had had enough of his golden companion. Threepio, on the other hand, was having none of it.

"Master Luke! I cannot go with you if you use your X-Wing," he cried. "You _are_ going to leave me in the hands of that furry creature! How could you abandon me so?"

Luke laughed softly and then walked to the cockpit without answering the golden droid. "We need to make a stop back at the village; I need to get the X-Wing."

"I really don't want to stay here any longer, but okay," Han said, but he sounded distracted.

"What it is?" Luke asked.

"I can't raise Leia. Or Lando. Or anyone from the Rebellion," Han said hesitantly. "It's like they're not there."

"Maybe they're just busy?" Luke asked, knowing that he wasn't being helpful.

"Nah, it's like the frequency isn't there," Han said, even more distracted.

Luke turned to Chewy, who merely shrugged. "Well," he said, looking back at Han. "We'll just meet up at Yavin IV and find out what's going on. Sounds good?"

Han nodded, and then sat back. "Yeah, that sounds okay."

Luke was about to leave when he paused and turned back to Han. "By the way, Han, I'm leaving Threepio with you."

"The hell you are!" Han yelled, immediately jumping up and facing Luke. Chewy growled angrily, and Luke wasn't sure who it was directed at.

Luke just grinned.

* * *

Chewy landed the _Falcon_ , and Luke and Artoo left the ship, promising that they would be meeting Han and the others at the base. As the _Falcon_ flew off, Luke began preparing his own ship.

"Artoo, get everything ready. I'm gonna grab some stuff from the one house," Luke told the droid, who whistled hesitantly, but began to prep the ship.

Luke entered the house and grabbed the items that he had left there from before. He picked up the holodisk and ran a finger across it. He wished that he could go after Yoda now, but he knew that he had to put that on hold. He left the hut and walked back to the X-Wing.

"Ready to go buddy?" he asked his droid, who's enthusiastic whistle assured Luke of just how much the droid was ready to leave.

Luke chuckled and got into the ship. "Let's leave this place behind and never _ever_ come back," Luke said to his droid, who agreed most emphatically.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Sorry that there was no update last night. I had a play last night that didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped, and I was a bit too stressed to do anything really. That and the mountain of homework that has been sitting on my desk. Anyway, here is chapterfice! Hope you enjoy, and remember to review!**

* * *

Leia blinked slowly, adjusting to the light. It wasn't flashing red anymore, so the alert must have shut off somehow. She assumed that they had landed, nay crashed, onto the planet below. Gingerly, Leia pushed herself off of the ground and took in her surroundings. There was one light left on, illuminating the shuttle in a steady red glow. She knew that she needed to check to make sure that Lando and the pilot were safe, but something sticky was dripping off of her eyebrow and landing on her cheek. She hoped it wasn't engine fluid.

"Lando?" she called into the shuttle, but received no answer. Carefully, Leia stood up, and grabbed one of the bulkheads for support. She waited until she felt sure she could walk without assistance, and then ventured into the shuttle, hoping to find the pilot and Lando alive.

The further Leia made it to the cockpit, the less light she had to see by. When she finally made it, she had to grope around, searching for the two men. Her hands touched the shoulder of one of them, and she shook him.

"Hello?" she asked, and the man slumped over. Leia slammed a hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. It was the pilot, and even in the dark she could sense he was dead. Calming herself, Leia reopened her eyes and began to look for Lando. She took a step forward and nearly tripped.

"Found you," Leia murmured more to herself than anything else. She felt for a pulse, and was relieved when she found one. He was, however, out cold. Squatting, Leia grabbed Lando just under the arms and began to pull him out of the cockpit. It was long, tedious work, but eventually she made it to the door of the shuttle.

After setting Lando down, Leia opened the shuttle door, and then shielded her eyes from the bright, natural light. After a moment, Leia turned back to Lando and dragged him out into the sunlight.

After placing him in the shade of the shuttle, Leia placed her hands on her hips and scanned the horizon for some sign of humanity. In the distance, Leia thought she saw some buildings in the distance, and decided to see if there was anyone who would be able to help her.

By the time Leia made it to the village, it was nearly dark. Apprehensive of just walking up to a random person, Leia tried to make up her mind about finding help. She had already decided on a cover story, but hadn't figured out how to get someone to help her retrieve Lando.

She didn't have much time to think. There was a clicking noise, and suddenly Leia found herself being faced by two or three blaster rifles, and she threw her hands up.

"I'm unarmed. Please, I need help," she said.

None of the blasters lowered, but someone did step forward. "Who are you?" a distinctly male voice asked.

Keeping her hands held high, Leia quickly fumbled for an alias. "My name is Lélila. My companion and I crashed on to this planet. Our pilot is dead, and my companion is wounded. I am in need of assistance with both helping my companion as well as procuring a ship off the planet," she replied, voice strong and commanding. Leia made a mental note to attempt to sound less like a politician next time, and more like a frightened girl, which is how the men holding the blasters were looking at her.

The blasters lowered slowly, and the original person to speak walked over to her. Now that he was up close, Leia saw that he an older man, probably in his fifties. "We would like to help you. Point to us where your ship is, and I will get some of my men who will then go and get your companion."

Leia blinked several times, and then merely pointed to where she had come from. She hadn't really expected them to help. The man nodded, and motioned to a few of the others behind him. They all scattered. He turned to Leia.

"Please, Lélila, if you follow me. I will see that you are properly fed and hydrated," he said, and moved away from her. Leia fell into step behind him. "I am Conra," he told her once she had caught up. "And I watch after the people here."

Leia looked about her, and noticed that there were several different alien species watching her. Houses were build side by side, sharing walls, roofs and it looked like possibly sharing rooms as well. Multiple pairs of eyes watched her from the windows as she walked. Leia quickened her steps and was side by side with Conra. "What can you tell me about this place?" she asked, trying to keep from staring back.

"Well, we're all rejects, you might say. People who have been hurt by the Empire. A few Imperial Stormtroopers who didn't have the stomach for their job any more, or families of former republic soldiers. We had a jedi come through, once upon a time, but then we were soon found out and the Empire attempted to eradicate us at that point. The Jedi protected us, but moved on once we were safe again." Conra paused, and the air was thick between them. Leia didn't want to say anything, so she simply waited for him to continue. "They don't know we're here, thankfully. The Empire, that is. They assumed that we had been destroyed in the battle with the Jedi. It's a bit difficult, to be honest, to have no one know you exist. It's hard to get supplies. But, there is one good thing about being dead: it gives families a chance to take a breath."

Leia thought about the families here and the fact that she had led the empire to this planet laid heavily on her heart. "So you're hiding from the Empire?" she repeated, and made the decision that she would leave this place in the morning. If Lando wasn't well enough to move, then he could stay here until he was well, but she would not stay and put these people in danger any longer than she had to.

Conra nodded. "Yes. We're all refugees here." There was something odd to his voice, and the look he gave her made her heart drop into her stomach, and she wondered if he knew who she was.

Leia glanced around again, trying to avoid eye contact with Conra, and this time she saw young children, hiding between the legs of their parents. "Why does the Empire want them? I know that some of them are, or were, anyway, associated with the Empire. But what of the rest of them?"

"Some of them supported the rebellion, both quietly and publicly. Some of them are simply multi-race families, a disgrace to the xenophobic Emperor. And some are using this as a way station, while the others are here for good."

Leia listened intently. "What do you think of the rebellion?" she asked carefully. She didn't want to give herself away if he didn't already know who she was.

Suddenly, Conra stopped walking and stared at her intensely. "Though I can appreciate what they are trying to do, they have made the Empire come down on the rest of us hard. When the rebels do something to anger the Empire, they bomb areas of the planet in case we're still here. Perhaps they think that we're a base of some kind. They've made things very difficult for us."

Leia swallowed hard. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"There is no need for you to be sorry. Unless you are involved with them?" He stared hard at her, not letting her break eye contact with him.

Years of working with politicians had prepared her for this moment. "They offered my companion and I passage, is all. And, like you, I can appreciate what it is they are attempting even if I don't wish to be involved in any way."

Conra studied her face before nodding slowly. "I assumed that you had some connection with them."

"Will this be a problem?" It was now her turn to not let him break eye contact. Her eyes dared him to send her away.

"Not so long as you leave as soon as you can. If the Empire is searching for you, you put everyone here in grave danger."

Relief spilled into her, but she stopped herself from letting it show. "I understand."

Conra nodded and turned to a dark and empty looking house. "Here is where you can stay tonight. I will have someone come by later and bring you food, as well as bringing your companion this way too."

Sitting alone in the house, Leia waited impatiently for the search party to return. She had spent the better part of an hour pacing from one end of the main room to the other, trying to figure out a plan on how to get out of here. Their ship was obviously totaled, but perhaps she could trade the parts for a smaller vessel from the villagers here.

There was movement outside of the door, and Leia paused her thinking. It didn't sound exacrly dangerous, but she wasn't aware of what was going on at this place, or even on this planet. She didn't even know what the planet was called. There was more movement and something rammed into the door. She grabbed the closest thing to her-a candlestick-and walked over to the door. There was movement similar to last time, and Leia lifted the candlestick above her head, but then she head a soft knock, and Leia slowly opened the door. Standing in the doorway was a heavily pregnant woman with a young child, who looked to be about two years old. Leia remembered seeing the woman when Conra was bringing her to this house, and briefly wondered if strangers in this place was uncommon, despite what Conra had told her about this being a weigh station.

"Ma'am, d'ya mind if we come inside?" The woman had a distant accent, and Leia tried not to cringe at it. She shook her head and opened the door wider. Her guest entered, gently tugging the child in with her. In the woman's other hand was a small basket, and Leia wondered if that was her dinner. The little girl looked up at her and pointed to the item in her hand, which was still raised semi high. Leia had completely forgotten about and was slightly ashamed that she had almost used it on the woman. Leia set the candlestick down, and then followed the woman in, making sure the door behind them was shut.

"Can I help you with something?" Leia asked, turning to face them. She hoped that this wouldn't take long. She needed to resume her pacing and thinking. She would probably grow mad if she weren't allowed sufficient time to think.

"I jus' had a question for ya," the woman said, putting down the basket, and Leia assumed that the question was in addition to bringing her food, which was beginning to smell tantalizing. She smiled at Leia. "Now I don' mean to pry into your personal life, but did your mother e'er come to this planet?"

Leia's frown deepened and she shook her head. "No, I don't believe that she was ever here."

The stranger frowned as well. "But…that cain't be true. You 'ave to be her daughter."

Leia smiled softly at her, but shook her head forcefully. "I don't know to whom you are referring," she said slowly. "But my mother barely left our home planet. I can assure you that she has never been here." The woman pursed her lips to argue but Leia lifted a hand, a tactic she had used often as a senator, and said, "You must have simply met someone with no relation to me, that is all."

The woman deftly pulled a small object out of her cloak and handed it to Leia. "She was a senator, a long time ago." Leia held the object but watched the woman. She seemed to let go of her belief that Leia was this stranger's daughter easily, but Leia didn't mind. She wasn't up for a debate anyway. "She stopped by this village, and was in need of supplies and fuel. That was before the Empire started, you know. Back in the good days, when this was a thriving community. I was just a little girl then, but I remember when my mother met her."

Leia watched the woman's face. Obvious to Leia that something happen between the two strangers in the story, she listened as the story continued.

"I don' know what it was they talked about, and I don't suppose that I really need to, but whatever it was, it changed my mother's life. And I always wanted to thank the senator for that, but we never saw her again."

"Why do you think I am her daughter?" Leia inquired, suddenly curious to know why this woman was so adamant in her belief. She hoped that she would have a small, quick answer from the woman so that she would leave and Leia would once again be left alone.

The woman gestured to the forgotten object in Leia's hands. "See for yourself."

Leia looked down and flipped the object around. It was a small wooden frame with a rudimentary picture in it. Leia brought it up closer so that she could see it better. Shock flooded her system. The likeness between the woman etched on the wood and Leia herself was striking. The woman in the picture had her hair down, and it swept across her shoulders in swirls. Even though the picture was not in color, Leia could tell the hair was a rich, nut brown color. Their face held few similarities, but the most striking thing about it was the woman's eyes. Kind, soft brown eyes stared back at Leia, and it almost looked like a reflection that had been distorted by a flowing stream. Leia stared at the picture for longer than she had intended before handing it back to the woman. "I do not know this woman," she said forcefully.

"But you can see how I would think that you are her daughter," the woman said excitedly. "Surely you wish to hear everything I know of her, and perhaps you will find that she is not the stranger you believe her to be?"

"No thank you," Leia said slowly, her voice hard. The woman's eyes flew downwards, and Leia knew she should be ashamed of herself, but she didn't. "Now please, I think you need to leave."

The woman nodded softly, but then took two large steps and was right in front of Leia. "She gave me something, and I wish to give it to you. Even if you do not believe me, I know the truth." Her words came out in a hiss, and Leia jerked back. She thrusted her hand towards the woman and held out the picture. "Take it," she demanded. The woman didn't move. "Take it or I will make you take it." Fear raced through her heart and she bit her tongue. This was not the way a senator dealt with a high stress situation.

The woman took the picture back and carefully placed it back in her cloak. "Please, forgive me, miss. I didn't mean to confuse you." Her words were softer now, and Leia immediately felt a hint of guilt. But there had been something unnerving about the woman's insistence and her child's refusal to speak. She stood and turned to her daughter. "Come on, Padmé. It's time for us to go." She began to walk away, and then paused. She turned back to face Leia. "I named my daughter after her, in her legacy."

Leia merely stared at her and said nothing, and after the woman and child had left, and when she was finally alone, Leia stood back up and began to pace the room once more. Her thoughts were erratic, the first few being absolute denial. Of course this woman was wrong. This senator couldn't be her mother because it was impossible. She had known her mother, briefly as it had been. But she knew her through her father, too. He would tell her all sorts of stories of the Queen of Alderaan each time she asked, and there had been so many that there was never a need to hear one more than once.

But then, memories long gone resurfaced, and Leia could remember conversations she had overheard where her father had explained to friends of his that Leia was their 'miracle' child because her mother wasn't supposed to have children. Could her father have had an affair? Could the reason that the 'miracle' had happened was because her mother hadn't gotten pregnant after all? Was she nothing more than the product of an illegitimate relationship? Leia squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that would shut out the thoughts in her head. No, it wasn't true. Her father had not had an affair with another woman. He had loved her mother. The thought was ridiculous. It was more than ridiculous. Besides the fact that her parents had been madly in love, had her father have had an illicit affair then her mother would have cut him off and she would have no fond memories of the man.

But that didn't stop a nagging in the back of her head. Padmé, the woman had said her name was, had been a senator. Had been, but wasn't now? That's what it had sounded like. Perhaps her father had known this woman. Perhaps they had fought together or even against each other in the senate back during the time of the Republic. Maybe Leia would go find this senator, if she were retired. Leia's father had been in good health and was still quite young at the time of his death, and Leia knew he would have had many more coming his way at the Empire not destroyed her home world and everyone on it. The woman had talked about this senator has if she had been young, and even if she hadn't, it had only been twenty or so years. The likelihood that she was still alive was high, or so Leia assumed. She would find her and talk to her about her family.

The door burst open, and Leia jumped out of her skin. She scrambled to the candlestick, and Conra entered the room, followed by two men carrying a stretcher. Lando was unconscious on the stretcher, and Leia ran to them, heart still pounding and candlestick never leaving her grip.

"How is he?" Leia asked.

Conra gave her an uncomfortable look. "We found him awake, delirious and wandering around. He startled one of my men, who then shot him with a blaster."

Leia was quiet for a moment before registering what Conra had said. She squeaked, and whirled around to look at the two men. Sheepish looks on both their faces, she wouldn't have been able to tell which had done the deed had one of them not spoken up.

"He had his blaster on the stun setting, so your buddy is only sleeping."

Leia looked at him, his companion, Conra, and then let her eyes land on Lando, who was beginning to stir. She shut her eyes and shook her head. "Okay," she breathed out. "Okay. Thank you."

Conra nodded. "Well, we'll be leaving ya to it," he said, tipping his head in her direction. "We bandaged him up before bringing him over, so he should be good to go. Boys, let's go." The three men left the house, and Leia looked over at Lando.

"You are far more trouble that you are worth," she said under her breath.

The apparently conscious Lando smiled and replied, "You have no idea, Princess."

Leia rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder, making him wince. "Sleep tonight because we're leaving early in the morning, at first light."

Lando sat up and grimaced. "Why? What's the rush?"

Leia pulled up a chair and sat down. "The Empire is hunting us, obviously, but if they find this place they will destroy it."

Lando sat up, grimaced, and let himself fall back down. "But we have tonight to rest up?"

Leia nodded. "Yes, a few hours anyway. I'm going to see if we can get a ship, or some other kind of transport. I'm not sure they'll be willing to help us, though."

"Because we brought the Empire here?"

Leia nodded gravely. "And I don't blame them." She balled her fists together and then slowly stretched her fingers out. "And people wonder why we do what we do."

Lando looked at her, but his expression was so intense that she looked away. She wasn't in the mood to a heart to heart, or even a yelling match. Even a politian had her moments.

* * *

Leia was up before the break of dawn. She hadn't gotten much sleep anyway, and had gotten up and been ready hours before the sun rose. She had found an old radio unit in a locked up closet, and had been fiddling with it for about an hour when Lando stirred.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sleepiness heavy in his voice.

"I'm toying with the idea of contacting someone to come pick us up," she said, tapping her finger on the wooden table. "On the one hand, the Empire already knows we're here. So if they intercept the message, it's not like I'd be telling them something they didn't know."

"True," Lando agreed, but Leia wasn't listening to him.

"But on the other, they could possibly believe that we're dead. If we contacted someone, the Empire could get here before our rescuers and then that is that."

"Also true."

"But we don't have any other way of getting off the planet. These people don't have any spaceships, so we're not getting away that way." She sighed deeply. "I just don't know what to do."

Lando sat up and swung his legs over the couch. "Leia, you're a wonderful leader. Don't start doubting yourself now. Go with your gut."

Leia regarded him for a moment. She didn't get the sense that he was only saying what she wanted to hear because he thought that was what she wanted. She sighed again and closed her eyes and concentrated on the decision. Obviously it wouldn't matter how she stated her message; the Empire would know who it was that was asking for help. But the Empire could also be sending ground search parties that could be looking for them at that very moment.

Hell, she didn't even know what planet they were on. And then it struck her. Their coordinates would be on their navcomputer, assuming that it had survived the crash. If she could get those numbers and simply transmit them, then she might be able to get both Lando and herself off this planet in once piece.

But who to send them to? A warm feeling filled her heart and she remembered Han's disappearance. And while that particular disappearing act was still annoying-to say the least-he would be out in space with no knowledge of where the rebellion had gone.

"Lando, does the _Falcon_ have its own frequency?" she asked.

Lando shrugged. "She did when I had her, but I don't know about the different changes that Han might have made."

Leia doubted that Han had the capabilities to change the frequency itself. "Give me the number," she ordered.

"Leia, we don't know where Han is. There is a radius that the ship has to be in in order to pick up any signal, let alone get the message."

"I don't care," Leia said. "You told me to go with my gut. My gut is telling me that this is what I'm supposed to be doing."

Lando sighed. "Let me write it down."

Leia nodded. "In the meantime, I'm going to be going back to the ship and try to find the exact coordinates."

"What?" Lando asked. "Are you kidding? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Leia gave him an incredulous look. "And you're gonna stop me?" she asked.

"Maybe I am," Lando said. "You got a problem with that?"

Leia smiled sweetly at him. "I'm not the one with the injured leg." With that, she slipped out the door into the cool morning and made her way back to the crash site.


	6. Author's Note

To my readers-

I've some particularly unpleasant news. I'm unable to finish this story at the moment. I don't have any idea where to go from here, and everything I write is wrong. This is a hugeneral project, encompassing the better part of three films. So, I'm putting it on hold for the time being, until I can come up with a plan that males sense to me, all of you, and is worthy of the name star wars. This probably isn't much of a shock, seeing as how I've not updated this year, but I thought I'd still tell you.

However, they is some good news. I will be"updating" the previous 'ahsoka' stories with all sorts of new and wonderful edits. Those stories will be available here on until the 1st of March, and then I will take them down until they're ready. This story will also be taken down at that time.

Again, I am so sorry for this.

MLV


End file.
